Consequences of Kindness
by Panthers Midnight Lair
Summary: Things go a little wrong when Daniel comes to the aid of a neighbor.  This is part of the How Does This Go Again series. For the rest of the series visit www.pantherslair.


Consequences of Kindness

Season: 10+

Series: How Does This Go Again?  
Pairing: Jack/Daniel

Rating: NC-17

Category: Ship, Drama, H/C

Spoilers: Begins Where It Ends, Hathor

Warnings: graphic slash, domestic violence, adult situations, mild language

_Disclaimer: The Stargate universe and its inhabitants are the sole property of MGM et al. I don't own them. I just like to play with them._

Things go a little wrong when Daniel comes to the aid of a neighbor.  
This is part of the How Does This Go Again series. For more stories visit .

It was a rare occurrence when Daniel ended up spending time at his condo. It was the reason he had chosen to get one in the first place rather than just buying a house. Tucked away in a high rise with all the other condos he didn't have to worry about things like keeping up a yard or making sure no one broke in and looted the place unnoticed while he was gone.

It also added a degree of privacy. There were no neighbors to notice his coming and going as he drove past their houses, or who he was coming and going with. It was easier to be anonymous, especially for Jack who had a cardkey to get him into the main lobby and allowed him to walk right past the security desk without having to sign in or out. Once he was in the building where he went and who he saw was a matter of speculation, assuming anyone was interested enough to do so.

While they didn't use the space very often, every once in a while they would make plans to stop there and at least have dinner, usually when one or both of them was working late. Sometimes they spent the night. Sometimes they waited for the traffic to clear and drove out to Jack's house. It was sort of like their vacation home except that it was in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Arlington, Virginia rather than someplace one might actually associate with vacation. Considering how much he had paid for the place it was a tragedy not to use it, but in reality he didn't care. The lack of wear and tear from regular use would make it that much easier to resell.

Daniel was eagerly anticipating the time when they were finished hiding from military regulations and could both claim the same address rather than having to stock each other's closets and bathrooms with the essentials. For all intents and purposes they were living together they were just dividing their time between addresses. At least that was how he justified it when the concept started to get on his nerves.

Once upon a time having separate addresses had come in very handy, back during the first few years of their relationship when they had gone through rough patches that had them taking a break from each other for brief periods of time. Sometimes it was easier to spend a few weeks apart than let the tension and frustration keep building until it destroyed the relationship. However, those days were in the past.

Jack was no longer as ill at ease with being in a relationship that went against everything he had ever been taught to believe about what love should be and how it should look. And he was no longer taking his frustrations with it out on Daniel. In short, he had finally made peace with the whole thing. He wasn't quite to the point of being willing to admit that he was at least bi-sexual if not outright gay, but he had no problem admitting that he was in love up to his little brown eyeballs and the object of his affection was another man. Well, at least not to Daniel…and not as long as he wasn't required to use those exact words. It had been a major hurdle and had taken a lot of time and patience to get there, but they were finally there. Now the separate addresses and maintaining two fully furnished houses was just a matter of keeping up appearances for the sake of Jack's career. It was rare for them to actually spend the night apart.

That particular evening Jack had a late afternoon conference call that had the potential to drag on for a few hours so Daniel had headed to the condo to start dinner, planning to have everything ready when Jack finally came tumbling through the door. He was dividing his attention between CSPAN and a pot on the stove when he heard a knock at the front door. Curious, he headed down the hall and peered through the peep hole. Nobody ever came to visit him, but Jack and Jack never knocked. He had a key.

All he could see on the other side of the door was the top of someone's head, but he vaguely recognized it as belonging to a young woman he had seen a few times waiting for the elevator. She was quiet, a bit shy, but friendly enough.

"Hi." He opened the door, curiosity shoved aside when he finally got a look at her.

She'd obviously been crying, her eyes red and her face still damp. The split lip gave him a good idea why.

"I'm sorry to bother you." She said softly, arms folded across her chest as she cast an anxious glance further down the hall, sniffling quietly. "I was just wondering if I could, um…this is stupid."

"Why don't you come in?" Daniel offered, watching as she blinked gratefully at him and scurried inside.

"I really hate to bother you, but I just need a place to wait for awhile."

Daniel closed the door and ushered her farther inside. He didn't know much about her or the man she lived with, but he had heard the muffled sounds of yelling and thuds as things hit the wall from time to time. Thankfully the place had excellent insulation so he didn't hear much. He was assuming her boyfriend, fiancé, whatever he was, had a bit of a temper. Of course, from what little he'd heard he hadn't been willing to make any type of judgment about the situation. After all, he and Jack had been known to have some loud, but otherwise harmless arguments in their time. Since he hadn't seen any proof of physical abuse on the girl the few times he'd laid eyes on her he'd been willing to chalk it up to nothing more than the boyfriend blowing off steam. At least that was until now.

"Are you ok?" he asked, eyeing her rapidly swelling split lip and the red patch on the side of her face.

"Yeah I'm, um…I'm fine. I just need to, uh, let things cool off a little. I'll only stay a few minutes, I promise."

He led her down the entry way to the kitchen. "Why don't you have a seat?" He motioned to one of the barstools at the counter. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine. It's nothing." She gently touched her swelling lip.

"It's a little more than nothing." He said, wetting a paper towel. "Hold still." He added, reaching over and gently holding her chin as he dabbed at the cut.

She winced and sucked in air at his touch.

"Sorry."

"It's ok."

"Why don't you hold that for a minute? It looks like it's still bleeding a little."

She took the paper towel from him and held it to her lip, casting brief glances around the kitchen, her gaze settling on the television.

"You watch CSPAN?"

"Only when they're talking about something I'm interested in."

"I'm not much into politics." She admitted.

"Can't say that I blame you." He replied, stirring the rigatoni boiling on the stove. "Most of the time it's more frustrating than informative."

"I don't usually know what they're even talking about."

"That's ok. A lot of the time _they_ don't know what they're talking about either."

She smiled despite her lip.

Daniel went back to fixing dinner, draining the rigatoni, pouring spaghetti sauce over the top and adding a layer of shredded cheese before tucking it in the oven. After that, all that was left was dumping the contents of a bag of salad into a bowl. He could cook, but he was a big believer in short cuts. When it came to gourmet meals he left that to the professionals.

"Tell you what. Why don't you stay for dinner?" He suggested. "That should give things enough time to cool off."

"Oh, no, that's ok. I don't want to be in the way."

"It's just dinner with a friend and we'd love the company."

Ok, so that was stretching it. After the conference call he had no idea what kind of mood Jack would be in. If it wasn't a good one he would never hear the end of it, but he wasn't about to send the girl to wait out her boyfriend's tirade in the hall.

"Oh, no I wouldn't want to intrude. I'm sure you two probably want to be alone." She continued to protest.

"It's ok." He smiled at her. "It's not a date. He lives alone. I live alone. Now and then we get together and have dinner. It's no big deal."

Ok so now he was blatantly lying, but he knew how it would look if he didn't offer some kind of explanation before Jack showed up. It would look…well, it would look like exactly what it was and for the time being they had to do their best to avoid that. There was no telling who the girl was or who she might know.

"If you really don't mind."

"Not at all."

"Thank you." She smiled.

"You're welcome." He answered, pulling plates out of one of the cupboards.

"Oh, let me do that." She said hoping up from the barstool. "It's the least I can do."

"No, no, you're my guest. You get to sit there and watch."

"I feel bad. I mean, I invite myself over and then you end up waiting on me."

"Don't." he smiled. "So far you haven't been even remotely demanding. Here." He added, opening the freezer, taking out a cold pack and wrapping it in a dish towel before handing it to her. "Looks like you've got the start of a nasty bruise on your cheek to go with that lip."

She took the pack from him and dropped her gaze to the counter, a blush rising on her face to go with her suddenly dejected expression.

"It's ok." He offered gently. "It's nothing to be ashamed of."

She offered him a very brief, polite smile, but kept her eyes on the counter.

Daniel had never been in a physically abusive relationship, not that he hadn't dated his share of temperamental boneheads of both genders. However, he'd had a friend in college that had gotten tangled up with a guy who had seen nothing wrong with backhanding her when she did something he didn't like. More than once she had shown up on Daniel's doorstep bruised, bleeding and in tears. At the time he had found it odd that the tears had usually been a result of embarrassment and feelings of guilt rather than her injuries. He hadn't understood why until he'd crossed paths with Hathor. Being a rape victim had gone a long way to educating him about what it is to be abused and how it messes with your mind. It had taken him a long time to get out from under the feeling that he'd somehow been to blame, that he'd set himself up for it, that he should have known better, that he'd asked for it.

He could tell by looking at her that the young woman in his kitchen was struggling with the same concepts. It didn't matter that her boyfriend, fiancé, whatever, had all the self control of a spoiled two-year-old. She was ashamed to have to admit what he'd done to her. Daniel could only imagine the level of fear that had sent her running from her condo to the door of a complete stranger for help. Who knows, maybe the guy had simply kicked her out during his tantrum and she was waiting for him to cool off enough to let her back in.

"My name's Daniel." He said, suddenly realizing he had no idea what to call her.

"Miranda." She replied. "People call me Randi."

"Nice to meet you." He smiled. "Come on."

Daniel wandered around the breakfast bar and out of the kitchen before leading her into the living room. She settled on the couch and he gave her the remote for the television, letting her get comfortable before disappearing only to return a few minutes later with a couple of ibuprofen and a glass of water.

"I don't know you that well and you can feel free to tell me it's none of my business," he offered, gently as he settled on the coffee table in front of her, but far enough away not to crowd her "but you don't have to live like this. There are places you can go for help."

"It's not like that." She shook her head emphatically. "He can be really sweet. He just loses his temper. He doesn't mean it."

"Ok." Daniel nodded.

He knew when to butt out.

**XxXxXxXxX**

Jack unlocked the front door and strode inside, the smell of pasta sauce and cheese immediately enveloping him. His stomach gave an appreciative groan.

It had been a long day; one made even longer by the conference call he'd finally been able to hang up on. Nothing annoyed him faster than closed minded politicians and their self serving agendas. He'd headed for the condo wanting only two things…to figure out what to eat and then to settle on the couch in front of Daniel's humongous flat screen television and watch the sports channel.

Once up on a time Daniel had been content with Spartan furnishings and low end department store clothes. Living the life of a usually broke graduate student and barely established archaeologist he hadn't had much choice. Daniel and money hadn't been very well acquainted back in those days. Whatever disposable income he had went to collecting artifacts and replicas of antiquated things to decorate his walls, bookshelves, counters, etc. However, after several years of making at least triple his previous salary he had broadened his horizons. Over the years he had developed very expensive taste. He didn't throw money around much, but when he did he usually aimed for top of the line stuff.

His condo was a perfect example. Tucked away in a relatively upscale neighborhood with a more than decent view, the place had hardwood floors, high end kitchen appliances, and comfortable, but far from cheap furniture. The place was half windows, most of them floor to ceiling, which he had paid to have covered in reflective tint in order to add to their privacy. And being a current events junky he had flat screen TVs in the bedroom, kitchen, and the giant one in the living room complete with a Bose surround sound system. It seemed a shame to watch the History Channel or CNN on the thing, but Daniel was a bundle of contradiction that way. A man with expensive taste in nearly everything, who was also perfectly content playing in the dirt and living in a tent for weeks on end.

"Something smells good." Jack commented aloud as he headed for the kitchen, perfectly happy to have the food issue decided. "And here I was thinking Mr. Wong's."

"I wasn't in the mood for take out." Daniel replied, greeting him in the front hall.

"Wow…you cook _and_ meet me at the door. Very domestic of you." Jack smirked.

"Don't get used to it." Daniel replied with a brief smile. "We need to talk."

"Ok." Jack frowned at him, the smirk sliding from his face when he noticed the serious expression. "What's going on?"

"We have company."

"Company." Jack repeated.

"Yeah, come on."

He followed silently to the bedroom, expectation bubbling inside. They didn't have company. Not since the old days of team barbeques in Colorado and he assumed Daniel would be a lot more agitated if the visitor was someone that had discovered their relationship and shown up to comment on it. That left…well, he really didn't know what that left.

"One of the neighbors dropped by." Daniel said once they were safely tucked away in the bedroom. "I asked her to stay for dinner."

"Why?" Jack asked, tossing the garment bag that held his uniform on the bed, not even remotely in the mood for a dinner guest.

He always changed into civilian clothes before showing up at the condo. The uniform attracted too much attention.

"She got into a bit of trouble and came over looking for a place to, well…hide…for lack of a better word."

"What kind of trouble…and is this something you really need to be involved in?" Jack asked, knowing Daniel's long standing propensity for sticking his neck out on behalf of complete strangers in distress.

Sometimes things turned out alright. Sometimes he ended up with a noose fitted around said neck. In the back of his mind he had been hoping that running to the rescue of people in need had come to an end when Daniel had left the SGC. Obviously that wasn't the case.

"Her boyfriend hit her." Daniel admitted. "She showed up at the door bleeding. What was I supposed to do?"

"Let me guess…it's the loudmouth next door?"

"Yeah." Daniel nodded, briefly chewing his lip.

"Great. So we can expect him to come banging down the door looking for her?"

"I, uh, I don't know." Daniel replied, the look on his face making it obvious that he hadn't thought that far ahead. "I mean, I doubt he knows where she is."

"Let's hope not."

"In the meantime, I told her you and I each live alone and every now and then we get together to have dinner…two friends just sharing a meal."

"And she bought that story?"

"She seemed to." He shrugged.

"It's a good thing I can never remember where anything is in your kitchen then." Jack sighed.

"Probably."

"Fine. Let's get this over with." He sighed, still not in the mood for company, but hoping the girl wasn't going to stay long enough to derail his plans for a quiet night of sports on TV.

He did his best to quiet his annoyance with the notion that since they were spending the night in Arlington he wouldn't have to get up early to make the 90 minute commute from his house way out in Gainesville the next morning. HWS was only 20 minutes from the condo. He could stay up late that night and sleep late in the morning. Even if the girl decided to hang around after dinner there would still be plenty of time for slacking off after she left.

Jack put on the pleasant face he pulled out for politicians and the Joint Chiefs and followed Daniel out to the living room. However, the bulk of his annoyance melted away when he got a look at the girl's face. He still thought it was a very bad idea for them to be involved in the whole mess, but looking at her bruises he suddenly understood why Daniel had taken her in.

She was a cute kid; brown eyes, light brown hair, and a light sprinkling of freckles. The shy smile reminded him of Daniel once upon a time. The uncertainty in her eyes and obvious tension in her body when he walked in the room reminded him of an abused puppy he'd rescued as a kid. She wasn't sure what to make of him and would have been more comfortable if he'd walked right back out of the room.

"Randi, this is Jack." Daniel said, making introductions.

"Hi." She replied quietly as Jack shook her hand.

"Hi." Jack answered with a smile. "Daniel tells me you're joining us for dinner."

"I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all." He assured her. "The more the merrier. So..." he added glancing at Daniel.

"So…why don't we eat? I don't know about you two, but I'm starving."

**XxXxXxXxX**

"Sorry about the surprise guest." Daniel mumbled later that night, an arm wrapped around Jack as always.

"No big deal." He shrugged in the dark. "Though I shouldn't have to remind you that this knight in shining armor act tends to come back around and bite you in the ass most of the time."

"I wouldn't say 'most of the time'." Daniel argued.

"Want me to go down the list?"

"Not particularly."

"I know why you did what you did." Jack sighed. "I just hope this is the last we hear of it because I don't really want to end up in the middle of this, especially not if her knuckle dragging boyfriend decides to take offense at you harboring his fugitive. How did she end up in the hall, anyway?"

"I don't know." Daniel admitted. "I didn't ask and she didn't say. I'm guessing either she ran or the guy threw her out."

"Promise me you're not going to drop by and check on her."

"Wasn't planning to."

Jack felt Daniel press a kiss to his shoulder and settle in to sleep behind him, apparently finished with the conversation. He didn't mind. He didn't really have anything else to say on the subject either, just that he was fairly certain the drama wasn't over where Randi was concerned. Thankfully they didn't spend much time at the condo so it wasn't likely that she would develop the habit of running to Daniel every time things at her place got out of hand. A vast majority of the time if she came knocking on his door for help she wouldn't find anyone home.

It was no secret that Daniel had a soft spot for people in trouble. Jack wasn't sure if it was something he'd learned from his parents or something he'd developed because of his turbulent childhood. All he knew was sitting on his hands when someone needed help was usually more than Daniel could do. In fact, in all the years he'd known him he'd only seen him do it a few times. Once because he'd been so caught up in watching a prehistoric scene play out before his eyes that he'd lost track of the fact that it wasn't academic, it was real. The others had been because if he jumped in to help he would have put other people at risk so he'd had no choice, but to ignore it. It had killed him every single time, the guilt nagging him for days.

Over the years Jack had watched Daniel grow into a truly extraordinary person, not that he hadn't been in the beginning. The naivety, almost cluelessness, he'd had when they first met at least a hundred years ago had been burned away by the drama and heartbreak of his first several years at the SGC. His reluctance to embrace a life he had fallen into purely by accident had evaporated when he'd gone on hiatus to play with Oma. It had taken several months for him to find his feet again when he'd come back, sorting through memories and reinventing himself in the process, but what had finally emerged was a much more confident, openly determined, settled version of Daniel. The strength he had always carried inside was now worn openly like a suit of armor. He was a bit less trusting, a bit more self-assured, a lot less reluctant to play the soldier he'd been trained to be. However, despite all the things that had changed, his overwhelming need to step in and save people had not. He didn't necessarily forget to look before he leaped, but even when leaping would obviously put him in harm's way he usually did it anyway.

The man had a cleverly disguised death wish…and a piss poor sense of self preservation.

Daniel had grown accustomed to taking risks very quickly. In fact, it was the only part of soldiering he had been willing to embrace whole heartedly from day one. He threw himself into the line of fire with the idea that he'd find a way to survive it somehow and if he didn't…well, sometimes that's just the way it went. Thankfully, he had more lives than the average housecat and tended to survive disaster despite the odds. But every now and then some well intended, but incredibly ill planned move actually got him killed. Jack had been very lucky up to now. There had always been a sarcophagus or, worst case scenario…an Oma…around to put him back together and set him on his feet again. But that was then.

They had very little direct contact with aliens or their technology at HWS. With the exception of the subject matter, they were back to leading normal lives like every other human on the planet. Meaning whatever technology they needed to put him back together had to be the Earthbound kind so bringing him back from the dead wasn't exactly an option any more. There were moments when he wondered if Daniel realized that. He seemed to be stuck in combat mode; taking risks when he didn't need to despite the fact that their lives were no longer lived out on battlefields scattered across various planets.

Randi was just another case in point. Mind you, a very mild version, but the same mentality. No, Jack didn't blame him for helping her. He would have done the same. In fact, if it had happened on his base, on his watch, he would have taken the brainless slime ball of a boyfriend and had him brought up on charges for Conduct Unbecoming as well as recommending Court Martial for domestic abuse. Heaven knows he'd done it before…more than once.

What was bothering him wasn't that Daniel had stuck his neck out for a complete stranger…again. It was that he hadn't stopped to consider the consequences. It wasn't out of the question for the goon down the hall to decide Daniel was muscling in on his territory. It also wasn't out of the question that the goon had a gun or a knife and a history of violence to go with it. After all, they knew absolutely nothing about the guy. Not even his name. The thought that Whatshisname could decide to make an issue out of it and gun him down in his own condo had never even crossed Daniel's mind. It damn well should have even if he decided to ignore the threat in the end.

That's what was keeping Jack awake. Daniel was leaping without looking again and after all they'd been through it would be a supreme tragedy to lose him over something as stupid as a knife attack on Earth by a moronic goon over a misunderstanding. Ok, maybe he was being paranoid, but it had been a little less than a year since they'd finally managed to put their relationship back together. He was as close to blissfully happy as he'd ever been in his life and was going to a lot of effort to settle Daniel into the same state of mind. He didn't want anything or anyone screwing it up. He wanted to be lying in bed, with Daniel spooned up against him just like this when they were both old men arguing about who drank the last of the prune juice and which set of dentures belonged to who.

Lying in the darkness he couldn't help smiling to himself as Daniel snuggled closer to him in his sleep. Tucking Daniel's arm to his chest, Jack closed his eyes and comforted himself with the thought that it would be weeks, maybe months before they spent any time at the condo again. That was plenty of time for the whole Randi issue to dry up and blow away.

**XxXxXxXxX**

Daniel was settled on the couch paying limited attention to the Discovery Channel documentary on the television. His mind was actually on the fact that he and Jack's first anniversary of being back together was rapidly approaching and he was still trying to figure out what to do about it.

Since his move from Boston to Virginia last year they now had dual anniversaries. The original marked the day they had traded their friendship for an often complicated and sometimes incredibly frustrating love affair. This one marked the start of a real life together, a hard won and deeply rooted mutual adoration that was finally taking center stage rather than being relegated to second place behind battling aliens and saving the planet.

Daniel had no doubt Jack already had something planned. Jack was a big fan of celebrations. He didn't necessarily need a reason to throw a party, but it helped. He would never be willing to admit it to anyone…possibly not even himself…but he was a hopeless romantic under all that military bravado. When he set out to demonstrate just how deep his feelings for Daniel went he usually overshot the target by a mile. Never in his life had he been in a relationship with someone that had the ability to completely overwhelm him with their outpouring of affection and adoration…until Jack. He wasn't the candy and flowers on a daily basis type. Smothering him with attention and affection every hour of the day wasn't his style and Daniel didn't need it. However, when the right occasion came up and he decided to make a point of demonstrating feelings he didn't always have the words to express the man had the ability to sweep him right off his feet…take his breathe away…bowl him over…insert a random head-over-heels in love cliché here. Half the time it left him completely speechless.

Daniel knew Jack like the back of his hand. He knew what he liked and what he didn't like. His problem was that he wasn't the hopeless romantic type. He had the words to tell Jack exactly how he felt and he used them all the time. Grand gestures to make up for things he hadn't said when he should have were a bit beyond him. He knew how to make Jack happy, but he didn't know how to hit him in a way that would have the same effect of overwhelmed speechlessness. Sitting on the couch, scowling at the television he wracked his brain for something that would at least get him close.

Knocking on the front door didn't reach his ears until the documentary took a brief break, the pause allowing him to hear something besides the television. Getting up and wandering through the kitchen to the front hall he was instantly reminded of the last time a mystery person had come knocking. Jack would be decidedly unhappy if they ended up with a repeat performance.

Peering out through the peep hole he couldn't see anything, but the hall outside. Still, the sporadic knocking continued. Actually, when he thought about it it was more of a quiet pounding than a knock. Much more curious than alarmed he opened the front door only to have Randi come tumbling into the entry way. She had apparently been sitting in front of the door, most likely leaning on it.

"Randi?"

"Daniel." She croaked.

One look at her and he didn't bother to ask if she was ok. She was very obviously not. She looked like she had gone several rounds with Teal'c when he wasn't in the mood to pull punches and without the benefit of protective gear. There were red marks all over her face that would no doubt turn to bruises, a cut under one eye, a swollen lip and he wasn't sure, but he thought she had a chipped tooth.

"What happened?" He gaped as he tried to help her off the floor.

"It's nothing. I…" She finished the sentence by bursting into tears with a yelp when he tried to take her arm to pull her to her feet.

Obviously her face wasn't the only part of her that had been hurt in the latest round with the boyfriend, fiancé, whatever he was.

"I'm sorry." Daniel winced in sympathy. "Can you stand up?"

She nodded at him as he put an arm around her waist and slowly helped her to her feet before doing an agonizingly slow shuffle to the kitchen and settling her in a stool at the counter.

"What are you doing?" She asked when he snatched the phone from its cradle, her speech slurred by her swollen lip.

"Calling an ambulance."

"No." she replied instantly. "They'll call the police. I don't want any trouble. I just need to rest. I'll be fine."

"Not this time, Randi." He replied. "You're hurt. You've probably got at least a broken arm. You need a doctor."

"Please."

"I'm sorry. If you want my help this is how it's going to be."

She started to cry as he held the phone to his ear. A pounding on the front door distracted him and he finished giving his information to the 911 dispatcher as he wandered back to the front door, half his mind on Randi and half on the phone call. He peered through the peep hole and saw a face in profile that he didn't recognize. It didn't occur to him that he might want to be careful about who he opened the door to until it was already open.

"Where is she?" the man demanded as he tried to push his way past Daniel into the entry way.

"Who?"

"My girlfriend, you asshole." The still unnamed man growled, glowering at him.

"Look, obviously there's been some kind of misunderstanding…"

"The only misunderstanding is yours…thinking you could take my girl. Now where is she? So help me I'll break you in half."

Despite the lack of introductions Daniel was almost positive Randi's abusive boyfriend had just made an appearance. He was also positive that Jack was going to blow a gasket when he heard about it…assuming all he did was hear about it.

The man certainly seemed angry enough to do some serious physical harm if given the opportunity, but he was an inch or two shorter than Daniel and about 15 or 20 pounds lighter. If he was looking to be intimidating he was going to have to try harder. After all, Daniel's sparring partner for the past several years had been a six foot tall Jaffa built like a Mack truck who knew how to be intimidating without saying a word.

The man attempted to shove his way further into the condo and Daniel grabbed him and wrestled him up against a wall.

"I don't want any trouble." Daniel offered, teeth clenched as he worked to hold the guy in place.

"Too bad." The man replied jerking his head forward and catching Daniel just above the eye.

Pain bloomed instantly in his head and he instinctively reached up to cover the wound, his opponent taking the opportunity to wiggle out of his grasp and storm further down the hall. Daniel heard Randi shriek as her boyfriend came into view, the sound snapping his attention back to the problem at hand. Diving after him and not caring how or where they landed, Daniel hurled himself at the man's back, both of them going down to the floor in a heap. The brief wrestling match on the carpet had them slamming each other against the walls before Daniel finally managing to gain the upper hand and pinned him face down on the floor. Panting from the exertion Daniel had a hand on the back of the man's neck pressing his head into the floor and a knee in the small of his back, grinding it into him every time he tried to move.

"Let me up." The man demanded.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Look, I'm sorry. No hard feelings just let me up."

"No, I think we're just going to sit here until the cops show up."

"You don't need to call the cops. It's just a misunderstanding…like you said."

"It _was_ a misunderstanding." Daniel corrected. "Now it's assault. Randi?" he called. "Are you ok?"

"Is he gone?" asked a small voice from somewhere near the kitchen.

"No, but he's not going to hurt you. I've got him."

A moment later a terrified and battered face appeared around the corner, eyes wide as she took in the scene.

"Can you call down to the security desk and tell them an ambulance is on the way?"

"What are you going to do to him?" she asked quietly, her voice still trembling with fright.

"I'm not going to hurt him." He assured her. "I'm just going to hold him here until the police come."

"Don't give him to the cops." She said, tears gathering in her eyes. "It won't help. It'll just…it won't help. Please. I don't want to press charges. You hear me, David? I'm not pressing charges."

Daniel wasn't entirely surprised by her response. Disappointed, but not surprised. She was scared and it was entirely possible she was right about it not helping. They would most likely hold him over night and then arraign him the next morning. He'd be out on bail by breakfast and probably none too happy. However, he wasn't about to let the guy just walk away.

"I'll press charges." Daniel said. "You don't have to."

"You can't do that." David protested.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can."

"I didn't do anything to you. I'm the one down here on the floor with you trying to break my back."

"Give it a rest. Randi, can you call downstairs?"

"I can't." she replied pitifully. "Please don't do this."

Daniel sighed quietly to himself. It didn't really matter whether she called the security desk or not. The guards would let the paramedics up without an issue and considering what he had told the dispatcher about how Randi had been hurt they would no doubt have officers in tow. All he had to do was wait. So, head throbbing and blood dripping onto the carpet from the cut over his eye he waited as Randi cried quietly in the kitchen and David complained about the abuse of his back.

"I'll stop hurting you if you stop moving." Daniel said quietly.

"Shut up you prick." David growled.

"Have it your way."

It was only another five minutes of bleed, crying, and complaining before the paramedics arrived, pushing through the half open door and stumbling onto the very unexpected scene. They were in the process of loading Randi onto a gurney, David cuffed and sitting on the floor in the hall outside under the watchful eye of one of the officers, when Jack arrived.

"What happened?" Daniel heard him demand from the hall.

"Do you live here, Sir?" Came a mildly testy reply

"My friend does. What happened?"

"It's ok. You can let him in." Daniel called from where he sat in the kitchen listening to the exchange.

His expression was pretty much what Daniel had expected; something between pissed and concerned. When Jack's eyes finally found him the expression didn't change much.

"What the hell happened?" He demanded, eyebrows half way up his forehead as he stepped around the gurney.

"I guess this would be the sequel to our dinner last month."

"What?"

"Well, uh, Randi showed up…then her boyfriend showed up, and things got a little out of hand." He sighed.

He knew the expression on Jack's face. There was a stern lecture coming…once he was satisfied there was nothing wrong with him other than his eye. Jack glanced at the paramedics and the police officer taking a reluctant statement from Randi and clamped down on whatever comment he was about to make. Instead he skulked over to the small dining alcove near the kitchen and leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest, watching the scene.

"Are you sure you don't want us to take you in?" One of the paramedics offered as they wheeled Randi toward the front door.

"No, I'm fine."

He heard Jack snort derisively in the corner.

"Ok, but if you have any headaches, dizziness, or nausea you should get yourself checked out pronto."

"I will." Daniel assured him, following the small crowd out of the condo and closing the door behind them.

He returned to the kitchen to find Jack still standing against the wall, studying him intently with a scowl that said he was having trouble deciding exactly how pissed off he should be.

"I am well within my rights to be irked, am I not?" He asked quietly.

"I imagine."

"I don't suppose you want to tell me how he got in?"

"I, uh, I let him in."

Jack's eyebrows inched up his forehead.

"I was on the phone with the paramedics. I wasn't paying attention. So sue me."

"You're lucky he was unarmed."

"I know." Daniel admitted.

Jack shook his head and pushed away from the wall with one elbow, crossing the room to stand in front of him. For a long moment he stood inspecting his face and the small butterfly bandages stretched across the cut above his right eye, finally placing fingers on his chin and turning it from one side to the other.

"Is that all?" He asked gently.

"Maybe a bruise or two, but that's pretty much it." Daniel stared back at him. "It's nothing."

"That's going to look pretty in the morning." He grimaced.

"Probably."

"I couldn't help noticing the idiot on the floor out front didn't have a mark on him."

"Well I was a little too busy trying to keep him from getting past the front hall to punch his lights out."

"Good thing the cops showed up."

"Actually I, uh, had him pinned to the floor by then." Daniel smirked.

A look of surprise slowly eclipsed the scowl on Jack's face.

"He was face down complaining about my knee in his back by the time they got here." He added with pride.

Jack smiled, lightly patting his face. "Come on. Let's get some ice on that before it gets any worse."

**XxXxXxXxX**

The scowl returning to his face, Jack grabbed an ice pack from the freezer, something Daniel had bought on a whim, but seemed to be getting an annoying amount of use from as far as he was concerned. Ushering Daniel out to the living room Jack settled on one end of the couch and let him stretch out along the rest of it, feet dangling over the arm rest as Jack guided Daniel's head down to his lap.

"Comfortable?" he asked, as Daniel shifted minutely, a pleasant smile on his face.

"Very."

"Ok, so…tell me the story." Jack said, settling the ice pack over the cut on his forehead, grimacing in sympathy when Daniel winced at the contact.

"I found Randi on the floor." He began, eyes drifting from Jack's face to the ceiling. "I was on the phone with 911 when he showed up demanding to know where she was. He got pushy. I got pushy. He head butted me on the forehead and I eventually got him on the floor." Daniel shrugged. "Since he wouldn't calm down I kept him pinned there until the cops showed up."

Jack nodded as Daniel cast a glance in his direction. He knew what it sounded like when Daniel told the whole story, beginning to end. He was big on details. That particular retelling had obviously been the condensed version, which meant there were things he was leaving out. Jack had no idea what bits and pieces were missing, but knowing how Daniel tended to gloss over his injuries and pretend he was perfectly fine when he wasn't there could have been an entire scene where the guy punched him and kicked him that he simply wasn't in the mood to share. It certainly wouldn't be the first time he would end up collapsing in a heap somewhere an hour or so after swearing up and down that he was "fine".

Jack supposed he could wait a couple of hours until they were getting ready for bed and surreptitiously check him for injuries, but a couple of hours could mean the difference between finding something wrong with him while they could still calmly get him to the hospital and finding something wrong with him only after he was in big trouble. Daniel and Big Trouble had been friends for decades. Jack preferred not to wait. That and checking him out when he was fully aware it was happening was much more fun, assuming he was in the mood.

"So I'm guessing the guy got a pointed lesson in the fact that beating up a defenseless girl and beating up a 6', 180 pound guy aren't even remotely the same thing?" Jack asked, running fingers through Daniel's hair.

"It would seem so." Daniel nodded.

"Any other injuries you want to own up to?" Jack asked, tugging the collar of Daniel's shirt away from his neck and making a grand display of peering inside.

"No." Daniel smiled.

"You're sure?" Jack reached out and tucked a hand inside the bottom of Daniel's shirt, briefly caressing bare skin.

"Um…I, uh…now that you mention it. There might be a bruise here and there." Daniel swallowed. "I, um, wasn't really paying that much attention."

"Hmmm." Jack nodded down at him with a smile of his own. "So maybe it would be a good idea to check? You know, just to be sure?"

Daniel grinned up at him. "Couldn't hurt."

Jack leaned down and kissed a spot on his forehead near the ice pack before settling on his mouth. It was immediately obvious Daniel was going to be a very willing participant in that particular physical because he sat up, lips still pressed to Jack's, following them as Jack retreated back from his huddled position. Daniel took his time sliding his tongue slowly along Jack's, casually exploring his mouth, a pace in complete contradiction to the rest of him as he crawled over and straddled Jack's lap, hands on either side of Jack's face, towering over him.

Jack slid his hands back inside Daniel's shirt, stroking across his stomach, along his sides and eventually at his back, pulling him closer. For the time being Daniel seemed perfectly content to stay exactly where he was, kneeling over Jack, his full attention on his mouth. However, fully dressed was not what Jack had in mind. Gripping Daniel's shirt and shoving it up his body, Jack forced him to finally break the connection when the material bunched at his neck. Daniel reached for the collar and tugged it over his head before tossing it on the floor behind the couch.

Jack grinned up into the face of a very turned on Daniel; chest heaving, lips slightly swollen, and eyes a deep blue. The mass of muscle he had become since returning to human form years earlier meant he outweighed Jack by 30 or 40 pounds so shifting him to a different position, moving him in a different direction, moving him period took at least a minimal amount of cooperation. Jack could force him to move when he was reluctant to do so, but it generally took some underhanded maneuvers or at the very least a whole lot of misdirection. In his current position, with Daniel for all intents and purposes pinning him to the couch, that was simply not going to happen. So Jack was hoping for a bit of cooperation. A hand on either side of his body Jack gave him a gentle shove sideways hoping to inspire him to pour himself back onto the couch, but it seemed Daniel liked his position of dominance.

Daniel grabbed his wrists, prized Jack's hands from his body and pressed them into the couch before refocusing his attention at Jack's neck. Deciding that it wasn't exactly torture Jack gave in and allowed himself to be kissed, licked, and suckled until he could hear Daniel working his way closer to the panting sound that meant he had had just about enough foreplay. He knew they had officially reached it when Daniel released his arms long enough to tug the shirt from Jack's body. This time when he shoved him toward the vacant end of the couch Daniel went willingly.

Both of them still fully clothed from the waist down Jack settled between his legs rubbing against him slowly, grinding their annoyingly constricted erections together as he took his turn kissing, licking, and suckling on bare skin. Daniel's chin toward the ceiling, hands in Jack's hair he twitched as Jack ran his tongue over a bruise he found on Daniel's ribs.

"Got any more of these?" Jack breathed against his skin.

"At this point I really hope so."

Jack grinned and went right back to what he had been doing. Daniel's hands left his hair and latched onto the waistband of his pants, struggling to get between their bodies so he could reach the zipper.

"You want something, Daniel?"

"Yes." He growled.

"I'm not sure I'm ready to let you do that just yet." Jack informed him calmly, grabbing his hands and pressing them into the fabric above Daniel's head.

They both knew he could get out of the restrictive hold if he wanted to, but he seemed content to play along as Jack kissed his way further down Daniel's stomach, swirling his tongue around his navel. Daniel bucked gently at the sensation, a warning. Jack released his hands long enough to unbutton and unzip his jeans before getting up from the couch and telling him to roll over.

He still had places he needed to check for injuries, the inspection mostly for fun, but partly serious. Of course, going strictly by Daniel's reaction to the attention thus far he figured it was a safe bet there was nothing seriously wrong with him. Still, it didn't hurt to check…just to be sure.

Daniel wasted no time changing positions, stretched back out on the couch where Jack settled between his legs once again and returned to exploring bare skin. He swirled his tongue around a bruise on Daniel's shoulder blade making him twitch, and around another low on the opposite side of his back eliciting a quiet sigh. As far as he could tell those were the only marks left on his upper body. With that part of the inspection done he finally tugged Daniel's jeans and boxer briefs down his body only to have him roll onto one hip, jeans tangled around his upper thighs and his erection bobbing in the air. "Do we really want to mess up the couch?" He asked.

"I suppose not." Jack shrugged, their play grinding to a temporary halt. "Different room?" He asked, not even remotely interested in moving to the thin rug covering the hardwood floor.

"Different position works for me."

Somehow Jack had suspected that. Daniel liked to play out the fantasy that they were somewhere other than the privacy of their own home. Making love in front of what equated to an entire wall of windows on the other side of the room was a bit of a turn on for him. Jack suspected that was at least part of the reason why he'd bought the condo. The fact that the glass was covered in reflective tint meant that as long as they weren't having sex in the middle of the night with all the lights on there was no way they would be seen. Daniel could just pretend that wasn't the case. In reality, having sex in public wasn't something either of them was actually interested in. But this wasn't reality.

Jack took a brief moment to collect the shirts they had abandoned and returned to find Daniel stretched out on his back on the couch, his jeans still at his upper thighs and his cock waving proudly in the air. Dumping the shirts in a heap on the floor, Jack was back between his legs, a hand wrapped around him stroking him slowly. Jack purposely knelt on the wad of jeans between his thighs effectively pinning his lower body to the couch. He couldn't wiggle out of them and he couldn't move with them clamped around his legs. He could feel Daniel shifting, trying to press up into Jack's hand or at the very least spread his legs wider, but nothing was working. He had no choice, but to say exactly where Jack had him. Head pressed back into the cushions and his hands clutching at the couch Daniel came with a loud groan before melting back into the fabric.

Jack grinned to himself as he listened to Daniel panting, taking the opportunity to finally strip him out of the rest of his clothes. Running his hands slowly over Daniel's skin he found another bruise on the inside of one thigh and kissed it gently, working his way up to nuzzle at his balls, breathing in the musky scent that was uniquely Daniel. Grabbing a shirt from the floor he cleaned Daniel's stomach before urging him onto his knees.

Head dropped to the arm of the couch, Daniel moaned in rhythm with the motion of Jack's tongue in the crack of his ass. That particular action had always melted him into a puddle and Jack reveled in the sounds he was making, loving the way he could draw them out of him. He lapped at Daniel's hole coating him in saliva, smiling when Daniel gasped his name as he forced his tongue inside. By the time he had finished Daniel was not only rock hard again, but his legs were trembling slightly from sensory overload.

Jack could have brought things to a halt one more time to dash to the bedroom for the lube, but he was hoping to come up with some kind of alternative. He honestly didn't want to stop. However, they were going to need something because saliva wasn't going to be enough. It was fine in the movies, but this wasn't the movies. He could make it work if he had to, but Daniel wouldn't enjoy it much, nor was he in a masochistic enough mood at the moment to be willing to try it.

"Keep yourself warm for a minute, will ya." Jack said, giving him a light smack on the ass and heading for the kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"Oil."

"Ah."

When Jack returned to the couch he was naked with his cock waving proudly in the air, glistening in the late afternoon light thanks to a generous coating of olive oil. Daniel burst out laughing.

"What?"

"Oh, I don't know." He snickered. "Something about an Italian food enthusiast strutting around coated in olive oil just seems a bit too perfect."

Daniel continued to chuckle to himself until the moment Jack breached him, at which point there was no more laughing. On his back on the couch, Jack settled between his legs he traded snickering for moaning as Jack coated his insides with the same olive oil moments before filling him with cum.

**XxXxXxXxX**

Jack was lying in the darkness listening to the sound of nothing. That was one thing about the condo. It had excellent insulation. You could rarely hear the neighbors and even the road noise from the highway outside was silenced. There were no crickets chirping, no frogs yammering back and forth to each other, nothing. Sometimes it made it a little hard to sleep. He was used to at least minimal noise at night. All he had here was the quiet sound of Daniel breathing.

Jack had seen the ambulance parked out front when he'd entered the building earlier that evening. It was hard to miss. He had considered stopping to ask the guy at the security desk what was going on, but that would have led to questions Jack preferred not to answer so he'd climbed in the elevator and made the excruciatingly slow trip up to the seventh floor fairly certain he already knew the answer, hoping he was wrong.

For a moment, when Jack had first come stumbling on the scene with the jackass in handcuffs sitting outside the front door and a cop standing guard, his heart had stopped in his chest. He knew what had happened without having to ask. A phrase he hadn't used in an incredibly long time came floating to the surface and suddenly he was right back at the SGC standing in the middle of a mission gone wrong.

_"Damn it, Daniel."_

It had come as an incredibly pleasant surprise to find Daniel in one piece. No extra ventilation holes in him anywhere and nothing more than an annoyed scowl on his face. He had been mildly pissed, but not in pain. Well, not much of it. Jack would have preferred pissed and completely unharmed, but he was willing to take what he got.

The thought that he couldn't leave Daniel alone for an hour and not have something come apart at the seams had grated on his nerves. He wasn't helpless, but the notion that he had gone back to being dangerously clueless had Jack grinding his teeth. He'd stood watching the paramedics deal with the heartbreakingly abused girl on the gurney, cataloging bullet points for his tirade, ready to lay into Daniel at the top of his lungs the minute they cleared out. Slowly, it had dawned on him that it could very well have been Daniel on that gurney, beaten and bleeding. He could have been spending the next few days at the hospital on gurney patrol. He'd dodged a bullet…almost literally…and perhaps a full lunged tirade wasn't exactly the right response.

It could have been worse, much worse. Judging by the outcome, obviously Daniel could take care of himself, at least when there wasn't a weapon involved. Jack refused to think about what might have happened if there had been. No point dwelling on events in an alternate reality.

Geez, he'd been around Carter too long.

With a sated and pleasantly exhausted Daniel resting on his chest, nearly asleep in his arms, he could honestly say the cut on his head was the worst of it. For once he'd been telling the truth when he'd said he was basically uninjured.

"You awake?" Daniel mumbled.

"Yeah."

"Wanna talk about it?" He asked, his head coming up from Jack's chest.

"Just thinking."

"I figured."

"Nothing to worry about."

"I'm fine" Daniel said before pressing a kiss to his bare chest, followed by another and another.

"I know." Jack replied.

"You can look me over again if you still have doubts…though I'm pretty sure you covered everything the first time. Might have missed a toe."

"I think my twice in one night days are over, Danny." Jack smirked.

Daniel nodded at him for a moment before the smile slid from his face. "I wish I could tell you this was the last time I'll ever do anything like that, but…I can't ignore people that need help, Jack. I don't know how."

"I know." Jack nodded, running fingers into his hair.

"So…?"

"So, nothing." Jack sighed. "I can't change who you are, Daniel. I figured that out a long time ago and honestly, I'm not interested in trying. But you're gonna have to deal with the fact that every time you do stuff like this it rattles my cage. Near misses bother me a lot less than when crap hits you dead center, but they still bother me."

"I know."

"I'd been hoping your habit of getting into trouble was a thing of the past. I think Boston lulled me into a false sense of security." Jack admitted. "But I'd be lying if I said I was shocked by the fact that it's started up again now that you've reattached yourself to the Stargate program, however minimally. Those two seem to go hand in hand. Always have."

"I noticed that."

"Just promise me you'll try to keep yourself in one piece until I retire and can get you away from this whole mess for good. Please."

"I promise." Daniel replied.

Jack could tell by his tone that he meant it. There was a world of sincerity in his voice, as well as his eyes as they reflected the dim moonlight coming through the windows.

"Ok then." Jack nodded. "Go to sleep." He kissed him gently and felt Daniel settle back against his chest.


End file.
